Needing to feel wanted
by JA Baker
Summary: Rommie has trouble sleeping…


Paring: Rommie/Dylan

Certificate: PG

Archive: Andromeda Uncovered, everyone else can ask first.

Feedback: Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but a wired and twisted sense of humour.

Summery: Rommie has trouble sleeping after writing a letter to Dylan…

Note: Ok this is the first of two stories' I thought up last night, but didn't get time to write until today (that was a long time ago: I only just got it back from my beta). It doesn't end as I first intended it to. Spoilers for the end of Season 3.

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Needing to feel wanted.

Rommie lay curled up on her side in bed, trying desperately not to think. She'd had the same thought for the past week, and it kept her from sleeping every night. True, she didn't need to sleep; Harper had added her sleep-program as an "optional-extra" when he built her, but she had grown to love the ability to shut down her higher brain functions for a time: The other had complained the first time she had overslept.

But now she couldn't sleep, and she knew why: fear.

Imprinted into her very being as a High Guard warship was the need to feel wanted, to be useful. At first this had been easy: a crew of over 4,000 made continuous calls on her, keeping her busy at all times. But, like all AI's, she had had her favourites, the ones she liked the most. Of these one stood out, one for whom she had developed more than simple affection, more than the regs allowed: Dylan Hunt, her captain, her heart, the man she loved.

At first she had tried to hide her feelings, hoping that they would go away when he married his beloved Sera. But that release had been ripped from her when she became trapped by the singularity, and 300 years had passed by in the blink of an eye. At first she had convinced herself that nothing had changed between the two of them, and everything would continue as before.

Then Harper had built her Avatar, the Ship made Flesh, and everything had gone from difficult to strained. Not only did she have all the normal components of a High Guard Ship's Avatar, but Harper had also added a few bits of his own design, the sleep program being just one of them. He had, for his own personal reasons, customised the design to make her as human as possible, "to give her the full range of human emotions" as he had put it.

She had never come across such a shallow and transparent human, but he did care for her more than any of her previous engineers.

After four years of trying to hide her feelings, she had finally decided to tell Dylan how she felt. But then the fear had hit: what if Dylan rejected her? What if he what if he laughed at her? What if he had found someone else? And scariest of all: what if he felt for her as she felt for him?

In the end the answer had presented its self: shortly after Tyr had left, Dylan had been called away on an important mission. Just before he had left on the Maru, Rommie had snuck a letter into his bag. She had hidden it in such a way that he wouldn't find it until he had gotten where he reached his destination, and it was too late to turn back. She needed him to think things over before he saw her next.

The letter had been a short but frank explanation of her feelings for him, and request that, if he didn't feel the same, she could transfer to another ship.

Rommie stood and walked to the window: the Maru had docked ten minuets ago, and Dylan had not said a word to her in all that time. He hadn't commed her, spoken to her mainframe, nothing. He had simply walked to his office, and used the keyboard there to engage privacy mode. Rommie bowed her head, knowing this could only mean one thing: he did not share her feelings. She started to pack the few personal positions she had acquired: her clothes, a few photos, and a book given to her by Gabriel. She came across the medal Dylan had presented her with after her mission to Machen Alpha. She turned it over in her hand, reading his name engraved into the back of it:

To Captain Dylan Hunt, for actions above and beyond the call of duty in the service of the Systems Commonwealth.

The knock at the door started her, making her drop the medal onto the table. She walked over to the door and opened it: Dylan stood before her, his face set like stone, a flexi in his hand, "Your request for a transfer is officially denied."

Before Rommie could respond, he leaned over and kissed her.

The End

(This was going to be a Rommie/Tyr romance, but I changed my mind halfway through.)


End file.
